Top Dem proposes changing election rules

Paul Schott

Updated 10:49 pm, Tuesday, July 23, 2013

As they do every two years, Greenwich's Democratic and Republican Town Committees last week nominated their slate of candidates for the Board of Education and other town offices. And this year, as with others, the town's voting system will ensure that the four school board seats up for election will be evenly divided between the two parties.

It's a system that renders residents' votes meaningless. Yet there has not been a serious effort to change it beyond lip service -- and that usually comes from Republicans, who are seen as having an ulterior motive.

Their entrenched numbers advantage in the voter roles would all but guarantee them control of elected boards if the town didn't mandate even-representation.

But this year, it's a Democrat who is calling for change. DTC Chairman Frank Farricker has proposed an overhaul of the town's system for electing school board members.

He recommends expanding the board to 12 members, composed of one from each of the town's 12 voting districts. The school board now comprises eight at-large members, including four Democrats and four Republicans. No more than four members of any party can serve on the board.

"I find that the system of electing school board members is not healthy for my party and it's not healthy for the town," Farricker said. "It completely bastardizes the meaning of the word choice."

Farricker argues that his proposed system would be more fair and representative than the current system and lower the barriers to running for the school board.

"I imagine that we would find ourselves highly qualified candidates from the neighborhood when they realize that they really do have a voice and can really affect things," he said. "And people in their neighborhood would be much more interested in addressing the issues of the school board because the board members would be more likely to be people familiar to them on a local basis."

Under Farricker's plan, residents would only vote for school board candidates from their districts. He favors discarding the current cap on party representation on the board, which would allow one party to claim a majority on the panel. With that flexibility, one party conceivably could control every seat on the board -- a scenario Farricker said he would accept, even if all the members were Republicans.

Whether there would be a way for that outcome to be allowable under state law, which includes minority-party representation rules for elected boards, isn't clear. Town Attorney John Wayne Fox did not respond by press time to phone and email messages seeking a legal opinion on Farricker's plan.

The current board members reside in only half of the 12 districts.

Under the current system, the only way to provide voters any choice is for the parties to nominate more candidates than the two seats each can fill. But party leaders are cognizant that backing more than two contenders will essentially pit their nominees against each other in the November general election. DTC members impassionedly debated that issue last week when they weighed how many candidates to nominate for the school board. In a close vote, they eventually settled on selecting just two nominees, Samarpana Tamm and Debbie Appelbaum. Laura Erickson, one of the two candidates not endorsed, has said that she will petition to get on the ballot.

Implementing a new school board voting system would require changing the town Charter -- a move that would require approval from the Representative Town Meeting and then backing in a town referendum, according to Town Clerk Carmella Budkins. That's one of the reasons it has not been done. But some say Farricker's proposal could ignite interest in exploring changes.

Selectman Drew Marzullo expressed support for a 12-district school board.

"I'm confident that if a Democratic board member seeking elected office were trying to make a case to 5,000 or 6,000 people in their geographic area, instead of 60,000 overall, a Democrat would win," he said. "The system we have now does not serve our town when on one side you have three (nominated) candidates and on the other side two candidates. The two candidates on the ballot only need one vote to win, so how is that real choice? The system we have now is flawed. Frank is offering an alternative."

A number of top Republicans also support changing the mechanisms for electing school board members, albeit not in the form proposed by Farricker.

"We need a Board of Education where each member represents all of Greenwich," said Jim Campbell, chairman of the Republican Town Committee. "The issues are too important for the board to have members representing just one part of town. Every member of the board needs to listen and communicate with parents and students and the community from all parts of the town."

Campbell added that he would support a system, such as an odd number of members, that would allow one party to hold a majority on the board.

Steven Anderson, a Republican school board member who is not seeking reelection this year, also backs a structure that would allow a party majority, but said he would not favor jettisoning members' at-large status.

"The districts are very, very dissimilar in size, so you're saying a smaller voting district gets the same as a big voting district?" he said. "The voting districts are not perfectly aligned by elementary school. And on the other hand, what are you doing for the middle schools and the high school? Are they're supposed to be represented by individual districts? We all end up getting the same high school diploma, and I think it's very important that members of the board think that way."

Peter Sherr, another Republican board member took a similar position, advocating for a six-member or 10-member board, which would result in an odd number of candidates being elected during each cycle. Sherr will have to pursue a petition route to get on the Nov. 5 ballot after he was snubbed by his party last week. The RTC nominated Peter Bernstein and Brian Peldunas, but did not endorse Sherr.

"People are shocked to learn more often than not 120 people are effectively selecting their Board of Education," Sherr said, referring to the approximate combined memberships of the RTC and DTC.

Board of Education Chairwoman Leslie Moriarty, a Democrat, could not be reached by press time for comment.